DAWSONVILLE, Ga. — “Praise the Lord.” That was the reaction to Senior Center Director Dawn Pruett’s announcement this afternoon that Dawson County has been selected to receive a $750,000 state grant to help construct and furnish a new senior center.

“I just announced it 30 minutes ago,” an excited Pruett said Friday. “I am so excited for our seniors and our upcoming seniors. We are so grateful to Betty Ann Bagley and the Pauline Ivey Trust for donating funds to begin the process of building this new center for our seniors to enjoy.”

In April 2017, Bagley, the trustee for the Ivey estate, presented the Senior Center with a check for $700,000 to go towards the construction of a new senior center plus the furniture and equipment. Friday, Gov. Nathan Deal announced the county would receive a $750,000 grant to help with the funding.

Dawson County is just one of 60 Georgia communities that will receive a total of more than $40 million in federal assistance to help grow their local economies. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development allocated the funding to Georgia’s Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program, which is administered by the Georgia Department of Community Affairs (DCA).

“Strong and prosperous communities enhance the quality of life for citizens and generate economic development opportunities across the state,” said Deal in making the announcement.

Of this year’s grant awards, $38.2 million will go to infrastructure projects such as neighborhood revitalization, construction of community facilities, and water, sewer, drainage or street improvements. An additional $2.8 million will be disbursed through the Employment Incentive Program (EIP) and the Redevelopment Fund, which together are projected to create 345 new jobs and generate $50.2 million in additional private investment.

Architects Wakefield and Beasley have designed the new senior center and Pruett said she hopes to break ground early next year.

Fetch Your News is a hyper local news outlet that covers Dawson, Lumpkin, White, Fannin, Gilmer, Pickens, Union, Towns and Murray counties as well as Cherokee County in N.C. FYN attracts 300,000+ page views per month, 3.5 million impressions per month and approximately 15,000 viewers per week on FYNTV.com and up to 60,000 Facebook page reach. If you would like to follow up-to-date local events in any of those counties, please visit us at FetchYourNews.com